Thursday, August 21, 2008

What Does Karl Malden Mean to You?

All right, now if you know WHY you've heard of Karl Malden, please keep your hand in the air.

If you know anything about Karl Malden's claim to fame - WITHOUT LOOKING HIM UP - please enlighten us in the comments section. No sneaking away to Google now. This is a pop quiz, no reference materials allowed.

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You may be wondering, 'Why the sudden obsession with Karl Malden?' (And if you aren't, please check the pulse on your ol' sense of curiosity.) It all came about because this week at work I had an allegedly professional, completely sidetracked, highly amusing conversation with colleagues in which Karl Malden suddenly came out of nowhere and took over the discussion. It was a conversational ambush. I still get tickled just thinking about it (seemed a lot like my recently-explained-but-for-so-long mysterious childhood fascination with the Norman Luboff choir) and was inspired to conduct this poll.

7 comments:

Schroedinger's Cat
said...

Well, he was an actor, and I can picture his face, but for the life of me I cannot think of what he was in. Maybe he was a cop in some movie or series from the 70s/80s. Seems to me he always had a hat, too. Some sort of plaid job.

Now that you are in town, we will have to get together for lunch and you can fill me in on what the conversation was about.

1. I thought I knew who he was, but I cheated and looked him up, and I was dead wrong. Now that I've googled, I feel like I would have known his face, but not his name. How odd. Cuz, the name is familiar.

2. Who is the schrodinger's cat person. Is that a joke? Is that Ben? Cuz if not, BOY do I have a funny CD for you.

Streets of San Franscisco with Michael Douglas is the tv show I remember him from, as well as American Express commercials. He was Omar Bradley in the movie Patton. He was in the Army during WWII I think, and was a stage actor (Broadway). He was Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, and won an Oscar for that role. That's all I can remember. Is any of this what you are looking for?

Karl Malden was an actor in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire.His Character was the friend of Stanley Kowalski,played by Marlon Brando, always trying to keep Stanley on the straight and narrow. His character is the conscience of the play.I'm unfamiliar with his other work.Why so curious about him?